It is a new year with a new concept in educational Web design as 2009 ushers in the era of streaming videos on the Kern County Superintendent of Schools’ KETN Web site. An exciting new program called "Superintendent’s Journal," produced by the office, has begun broadcasting Mondays and Tuesdays at 5 p.m. and again on Saturdays at 11 a.m. on Bright House Networks Ch. 15. But it can also be viewed anytime that is convenient via streaming video on the Web at http://www.superintendentsjournal.org. TV viewers and Web watchers get to go on location to learn about and be entertained by half-hour vignettes that deal with innovative programs the Superintendent’s office presents to highlight education in an extra meaningful way for Kern County’s students and families. Host Michael Cushine, a local school teacher and former radio personality, makes these "on the road" shows fun and entertaining intertwining action video and useful information with timely interviews. Superintendent’s Journal will feature students preparing for life after high school with vocational training through the office’s Kern County Regional Occupational Program (KCROP) in fields such as fire fighting, construction trades and health care. A later episode will get you on one of the Superintendent’s school buses to experience the care and expertise needed to transport special needs children to school. Other planned adventures include a trip to the coast to observe children spending a week in the great outdoors learning about the environment at Camp KEEP. More

“Baby boomers” who grew up with the advent of television, probably nurture some fond memories of Saturday mornings in the 60s when cartoons, puppets and adventure serials kept them entertained while slogging through a breakfast bowl of Malt O Meal. Times changed and children’s programming now occupies less time on the Saturday morning tube, interspersed with more commercials. Hold on! The Kern County Superintendent of Schools’ instructional TV channel, KETN, has just gone back to the future on Saturday mornings with a commercial-free, four hours, from 7-11 a.m., of cartoons, puppets and adventures. Throw in state-of-the art interactive animation, Hollywood celebrity actors, and programming that adheres to California standards-based curriculum, and suddenly, Saturday mornings are for children, once again. Almost any household in Kern County that has cable TV can catch the creative, entertaining and educational fare that includes many award-winning PBS programs in the lineup which includes: “Read-Alee-Deed-Alee,” “Between the Lions,” “Postcards from Buster,” “Weston Woods Collection,” “Reading Rainbow,” “Math Monsters,” “X-Power” and “Maya & Miguel.”

Just click the remote to Bright House Networks Ch. 15.

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If you can imagine a juggler spinning dishes on sticks in front of a live TV audience, Do the Math Director John Lenko says you can probably imagine what he does on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4-5 p.m. "I've got to switch live between three anchors, three camera operators, callers waiting on line, multiple video and audio sources and get us on and off the air on time. If those dishes start to slow down and wobble, I have to keep them spinning." Lenko laughed. Do the Math returned to the airways on Oct. 3, after a summer hiatus, to help tutor Kern County students with their math homework. Lenko works for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, and the show originates from the superintendent's TV studios. In fact, another employee of the superintendent, Laurie Maclin, is the executive producer, and she came up with the idea for the show. Do the Math features full-time, public school math teachers who have been transformed into TV personalities. More

Since "Do the Math" began airing in the 2002-03 school year, children in Kern County have found it to be a fun, easy and educational way to help solve their math homework. After a winter holiday hiatus, the unique twice-a-week educational television program, originating from the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office (KCSOS) in Bakersfield, returns to the airwaves on Jan. 10-11. Do the Math airs every Tuesday and Wednesday from 4-5 p.m. through April 5. It can be seen on several cable outlets including Bright House Cable Ch. 15, Cox Cable Ch. 20, Charter Cable Ch. 43 (North Edwards) and Mediacom Cable Channel 8 (Ridgecrest). More

Sometimes it is easier to bring art to students than it is to bring students to art. The Bakersfield Museum of Art and the Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS) are collaborating on a project that will bring art to students in the classroom through one of their favorite mediums -- television. Its working title is "Arts Workshop" and it could be in Kern County classrooms by February. When it is ready, Arts Workshop will be broadcast over the county’s educational network, KETN, on Bright House and Cox Cable network channels, making it accessible to cable equipped classrooms within the county. Later, the videos will be available in the KCSOS media library for individual check out by teachers.

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Wasco Union High School students involved in a program called Tomorrow’s Leaders Today toured the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office (KCSOS) at 1300 17th Street in Bakersfield on October 23. It was part of their training to acquire leadership skills that will help them become active in their community. More

Education legislation was the topic as the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team FCMAT) broadcast a live panel teleconference for the fourth year from the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office in Bakersfield on October 26. More

Anyone wandering into the library at Bakersfield’s Downtown Elementary School might have wondered what was going on the mornings of September 10-12. One teacher and five children were circled around a table surrounded by bright lights and two men with big videotape cameras. More

While staffers had Saturday, June 30, off a new addition to the county office was being made. A 40-foot extension was added to the existing communications tower atop the office roof. With the extension the tower now rises 100 feet in the air and accommodates additional communications dishes needed to communicate between sites operated by the office as well as those used by other educational entities that connect through the county downtown office. More

A recent live television partnership between the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office (KCSOS) could benefit thousands of Limited English Proficient (LEP) children, ages 2-5, in California. More